


Follow Your Star

by WildflowerWoods



Series: Cryptid Black Bulls [5]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29786619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildflowerWoods/pseuds/WildflowerWoods
Summary: Six months after Asta and Noelle joined the Black Bulls, the Star Festival has rolled around once more. While the squad know they've done better than they have in previous years when it comes to stars, none of them have realised quite how well they've done.
Series: Cryptid Black Bulls [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126286
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	Follow Your Star

**Author's Note:**

> I was aiming to get this up yesterday but all of you on the Discord server distracted me and I didn't finish it in time, so if you want anyone to blame for it being late, blame them.
> 
> (I'm just kidding, you guys are great)

_Miss Tick sniffed. 'You could say this advice is priceless,' she said. 'Are you listening?'_

_'Yes,' said Tiffany._

_'Good. Now ... if you trust in yourself ...'_

_'Yes?'_

_'... and believe in your dreams ...'_

_'Yes?'_

_'... and follow your star ...' Miss Tick went on._

_'Yes?'_

_'... you'll still get beaten by people who spent THEIR time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.'_

_\- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men_

* * *

"Now that my arms are all better, I gotta work real hard and make up for lost time!" Asta yelled. Vanessa rolled her eyes as the boy started doing very rapid pushups. Fitness freak. They hadn't even been back a day and he was going to overwork himself. Oh well, Vanessa wasn't going to stop him. Someone else would interrupt soon enough.

"Kinda boring with nothing goin' on around here, dontcha think?" Magna asked, sitting down with a pudding in his hands. Apparently, it was a rare day where he actually got to eat his desert rather than having Luck steal it and the two end up fighting over it like they usually did.

"I could get used to this!" Vanessa replied, praying that Magna hadn't brought a curse of bad luck down on their heads with his words. They'd just recovered from one exhausting mission, two of them back to back for some of the members of her squad, herself included. They didn't need _more_ chaos.

"Listen up!" Yami called. Vanessa twisted in her seat to see their captain stood in the doorway. He was dressed in full festival gear, or what he called festival gear at any rate. Vanessa would have called it beachwear. Still, it was that time of year again already? It didn't feel like six months since they'd picked up Asta and Noelle, but it had to be if Yami was in festival gear. "There's a big festival going on today."

"Festival?" Asta and Noelle both asked. Which was strange. Vanessa could understand Asta not knowing, he was out from the middle of nowhere, but how had Noelle never heard of it before? Her brother was a captain, the captain of a squad that usually did really well. How had he never mentioned it before?

"Captain Yami! Tell me more about this big festival!" Asta cried, jumping to his feet and did he ever stop yelling? Their loud rookie needed an off switch or volume control. _Something_ to make him keep his voice down when she had a headache.

"Well, I can tell you one thing, Asta," Magna said, never one to miss out on winding up their rookies now that he was no longer one of them. "it's pretty freaking awesome! Does that help?" Vanessa laughed. Magna had been just as confused when he first turned up, and now here he was, making fun of Asta. Hypocrite.

"Yeah, totally!" Asta yelled, clearly before Magna's words could properly register as he quickly followed it up with; "wait, I still don't understand!"

"That doesn't help at all!" Noelle snapped, and that was why they rarely left the explanations to Magna. He was horrible at explaining things to people, unless it was Luck. Magna was alright at explaining things to Luck, probably had something to do with their shared love of chaos and destruction. Pyromaniacs and battle freaks, the pair of them. "You!" she basically ordered Finral "Tell us what this festival is, and be as detailed as you can."

"I'm your superior, you know," Finral said. Noelle raised an eyebrow, tapping her foot and Finral sighed. "Sure." Vanessa wasn't sure why Finral kept bringing up the fact that he was superior to them, it's not like any of the squad ever listened to him anyway. She ignored his explanation of the Star Festival, it was the same one he'd given to Magna and Luck a few years ago before their first one. It was like pretty much any other festival, really, except they announced which Magic Knight squad had gained the most stars that past year. Not that the Black Bulls ever won, of course.

"Let's aim for the top!" Asta said, and Vanessa could already see the squad laughing at him and his naivety. Them? Anything other than dead last? Ridiculous. Noelle had caught on to that fact at least, even if Asta hadn't.

"Except, our squad does nothing but trouble, so we're always in a race for dead last." their resident Royal said. Truer words have never been spoken. Even Yami had been surprised by how many negative stars they'd manage to rack up the year before. Negative fifty was their record, though Vanessa knew that they'd done better that year, at least. If they were lucky, they might even have gained a positive star or two!

"No," Yami said, "we're in dead last by a mile. Nobody else has _negative_ stars." If Vanessa didn't know better, she'd say that the Wizard King had invented negative stars just for them/ Oh, sure. The other squads probably occasionally got a negative star or two for messing up on a mission or destroying too much of whatever settlement they happened to be fighting in or close too, but nobody got negative stars quite as well as they did. Unfortunately, negative stars weren't something to be proud of.

"Really? Asta asked "Come on, how terrible can we be?" there was a collective wince from the squad as they all recalled their previous totals, nearly always negative stars with the number slowly getting bigger.

"Very." Vanessa eventually said, when it became clear that nobody else would answer. "we're very bad."

"As I was saying," Finral said, clearly trying to steer them away from how horribly the squad had done in previous years "the Star Festival is the one time of year Yami lets us wander around outside the base without out robes and hoods up."

"Wait, really, we don't need our robes for this?" Noelle asked, and Vanessa could understand where she was coming from. The mystery was fun, scaring everyone who saw them was very entertaining, but it was nice to just walk around without everyone calling her some sort of demon or monster for once.

She could understand where the monster rumours came from, thanks to Yami and Finral's magic, it often looked like they travelled through shadows and came from nowhere. Thanks to the hoods, nobody could ever really see their faces and that often lead to the conclusion that they had something to hide. But, understanding where the rumours came from didn't mean that she had to like them.

"Oh, hey, wait, before we leave..." Asta trailed off, looking at Finral. Well, someone wanted something.

"Yeah?" Finral asked.

"If it's not a problem, do you think we could bring a couple friends along?"

* * *

"Here we are," Yami said as the Black Bulls arrived at the festival, "now, you rascals go have some fun." he could see his squad itching to run around and explore. Charmy was clearly eyes all the food stands and Vanessa had yet to look away from the alcohol stand. "We've still got plenty of free time before the announcement."

"Yahoo, where's the booze?" Vanessa was gone the moment he let them loose, Charmy right behind her.

"Festival food!" On the bright side, those two would be easy enough to find at the end of the night, seeing as none of his idiots had their hoods for once. One bonus of making them wear the hoods everywhere was that they were easy to spot in a crowd.

"I'll try to pick out a nice souvenir for my sweet sister," Gauche said as he left the group, Gauche would probably come find Yami on his own before the end of the night. He had permission to visit his sister in the morning, after all.

"I think I'll grab a bite to eat too," Magna said, looking at all the different food stands.

"I wonder if there's anyone here who wants to fight me." Luck said, attempting to wander off only to be stopped by Magna grabbing the back of his grimoire holder.

"Oh no, you're coming with me." the fire mage said and, while Yami didn't want to consider how much damage and chaos they could cause together, it was better than Luck running off alone and challenging everyone he saw to a fight.

Grey and Gordon had wandered off while the others were making noise, and Finral was grabbing Asta and Noelle's friends from the Underwater Temple, so that was all of his idiots set loose. They weren't his problem again until the end of the night. Right, time to find Julius, the older man had wanted to speak to him about something.

* * *

"Hey, there you are!" Magna yelled as he spotted Asta through the crowd "perfect timing!" Luck was right behind him as they made their way towards the rookie, oh Noelle was with him too. And the guys from the Underwater Temple. They must have been the friends Asta asked Finral to pick up.

"Oh, hey Magna, Luck. You surprised me." Asta said, before frowning, clearly noticing Magna's latest acquisition. Captain Yami probably wouldn't be too happy about them using it at the base, but he wouldn't care if they used it here. "what's that huge thing you're holding?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" Magna asked, almost offended that Asta had to ask. Sure, they didn't have them out in the sticks, but surely Asta had come across one before.

"It's a fireworks canon!" Luck said, bouncing as he spoke. Well, someone was clearly eager to set it off. Magna had only dragged Luck with him to stop the battle freak from getting into a fight, but exploring the festival with Luck was fun, he had excellent opinions on explosives.

"Did you say fireworks?" Asta asked, his eyes lighting up. Magna smirked, the kid had to be remembering the Harvest Festivals back home. The day after all the work was done and they celebrated another successful year and bountiful crop.

"That's right, as soon as it gets good and dark out, we're gonna light up the whole sky with these things!" setting off the fireworks had always been the best part of the Harvest Festivals growing up, in Magna's opinion. Sure, they'd never had all the fancy coloured ones that the Nobles had, but it'd been fun.

"Sweet!" Asta said, looking excited, but then he stopped. Why had he stopped? "Oh, but wait, I was just about to head off and check out the sights with these three."

"So ditch 'em!" Luck said, still bouncing "we outrank you!" Magna ignored him, looking between Asta, Noelle and heir two friends. Two guys- two girls- oh. He understood. Looks like he and Luck were date crashers. Uh, whoops?

"Looks like we just walked right into the middle of a double date, huh?" he asked, mostly for Luck's benefit. Luck probably wouldn't figure it out otherwise, he was pretty oblivious when it came to stuff like romance.

"A what?" Noelle demanded, as shrill as ever. Really, that girl had to learn how to stop hiding her feeling behind her magic and status as a royal.

"Man, you've got moves, dontcha shorty?" he asked, looking between Noelle and the Underwater Temple girl, he was pretty sure she was called Kahano, or something like that. Form what he'd heard, she was pretty powerful.

"Uh, I guess?" Asta said "What the heck is a double date anyway?" oh man, Asta had better not let Finral hear him saying that. The last thing any of them wanted or needed was an explanation on the different types of dates from the failure flirt. Magna had better explain it for the kid to avoid that, for everyone's benefit, of course.

"Oh, it's when two couples go out-" Noelle's water hit him right in the face which, seriously? Did she _have_ to do that every time she got embarrassed?

"That isn't even close to what we#re doing!" She yelled, "How can you be such an idiot, Magna?" Hey, he wasn't the idiot. Two guys and two girls out in a festival together, it was a reasonable assumption to make. There was no need for her to hit him with her water!

"Hey, Noelle!" Luck said, distracted by the magic "Wanna fight?" battle freak. Did he ever think about anything other than fighting?

"Absolutely not!" Noelle snapped, pointing her wand at Luck, and Magna had better do something before she blasted him too.

"Come on you guys!" the Underwater Temple girl, Kahona? Kahano? Ka-something, interrupted. "the four of us are finally together again, so let's have some fun! You know what, I think we _should_ make it a double date." Magna wasn't sticking around for that.

"Yeah, no." he said, grabbing Luck's wrist with his free hand. "come on, Luck. We're going." he said, walking off and dragging the lightning mage behind him

"Okay, bye Asta, bye Noelle!" Luck waved to their squadmates with his free hand. "So, Magna, wanna fight?"

"Later"

* * *

"Citizens!" Julius announced, stepping out onto the balcony with Marx right behind him. "Thank you all so much for attending!" it was always an impressive turnout, but this year there were more people than ever, a bit surprising, considering the attack on the capital a few months earlier. "The Magic Knight squads have done some amazing deeds this year," as always, some had done more than others, but even Julius had been surprised by just how much Yami's squad had done in the six months since the exam. "I'm here to recognise them. And, following my announcement, King Clover himself has a few words for you as well." Augustus would be talking about the Royal Knights Julius had come up with, but he was happy enough to let the monarch talk about them.

"Now then, as I assume everyone here is aware, our nation has suffered attacks from both the Spade and Diamond Kingdoms." the Golden Dawn and the Purple Orcas had especially been pulling their weight when it came to border security. "we're also waging a bitter war on the terrorist organisation known as the Eye of the Midnight Sun" and when it came to fighting them, the Black Bulls had been doing more than just pull their weight, they were leading the defence really. "when they advanced on the capital, many of our people sacrificed their lives. At one point I even considered cancelling this festival." the last two times he had gathered his captains they had lost one, first Fuegoleon was left injured and unconscious after the attack, then Gueldre was revealed to be the traitor that made the attack possible. "But then it occurred to me that this event would be the ideal opportunity to honour all those who bravely defended this country from our enemies." to honour Fuegoleon who lost an arm when betrayed by someone he should have been able to trust, to honour Yami and his squad who almost died fighting a battle nobody would have ever heard of, to honour all of the Knights who had paid the ultimate price for their loyalty.

"And so, the moment has come. Please welcome the pride of Clover Kingdom, our Magic Knight Captains!" and thankfully, they'd all turned up on time for once. Even Yami.

"Captain of the Silver Eagels; Nozel Silva!" the royal captain walked forwards with his head held high, looking every inch the prince he was.

"Captain of the Green Praying Mantises; Jack the Ripper!" the former commoner was the next one out, his mana still lingering in the air after his argument with Yami.

"Captain of the Coral Peacocks; Dorothy Unsworth!" the Witch was third, asleep as per usual.

"Captain of the Aqua Deer; Rill Boismortier!" the youngest of the captains had a slight spring in his step as he walked onto the stage.

"Captain of the Blue Rose Knights; Charlotte Roselei!" Charlotte had almost been late, arriving last minute with Yami and muttering something about stupid contests.

"The Interim Captain of the Crimson Lion Kings; Mereoleona Vermillion!" interim, because Fuegoleon would wake up at some point and Julius would leave it to them to sort out which sibling stayed captain.

"The New Captain of the Purple Orcas; Kaiser Granvorka!" Kaiser had never been one for the spotlight, Julius was sure that the man had only agreed for the sake of his squad.

"And last, but not least, the Captain of the Golden Dawn; William Vangeance!" William smiled as he joined his fellow captains on stage, Yami lingering in the shadows. The elder of his two strays never did like being announced at public events. Yami would show his face when he was ready to, and not before, though Julius suspected that the dark mage would be showing his face sooner rather than later.

* * *

 **"It's time to announce the standings!"** Vanessa took another drink from her bottle at the Wizard King's announcement, looking around the table at the rest of the squad. Magna was to her left, Luck next to him. Opposite were Grey, Charmy and Gordon. Guache was at a nearby stand. Asta, Noelle and Finral were nowhere to be seen. Vanessa could already predict where they were going to come that year, the same place they came every year. Dead last.

"No point in listening," Magna said, messing around with the fireworks canon he'd picked up earlier. Vanessa didn't want to know how many other explosive things were stored in the bag he had tucked under the bench at his feet. Knowing Magna, especially considering the fact that he'd had Luck with him most of the night, it was a lot. "might as well stay here and goof off."

"Yep!" Luck agreed from Magna's other side, happily munching on some fried food on a stick he'd picked up. Vanessa hadn't really been paying to what was on the stick when he bought it and she wasn't about to ask.

 **"In ninth place, with forty-nine stars-"** Magna glanced up at those words

"Oh, hey, that's better than I thought we'd do." Vanessa had to agree, the last time she'd checked, though that _had_ been before the Underwater Temple mission, they'd been on minus five stars.

 **"We have the Aqua Deer!"** the squad name took a moment to register, but when it did, Vanessa froze, looking up from her drink.

"I think we might need to go find Finral." they were probably just in eighth place, but Vanessa would rather find Finral and not need him than not find him and end up needing him. Why was he never around when he was needed?

**"In eighth place, with fifty-one stars-"**

"I still can' believe we're not last," Magna said, turning to stare at the stage.

 **"The Purple Orcas!"** and that was not good. Well, no, it was good that it wasn't them, but the higher up the rankings they got, the more likely it was that at least one of them would need to appear on stage, which meant that they actually had to be backstage like most of the other Magic Knights rather than being on the other side of the festival.

"Yeah, we need to go find Finral," Vanessa said, looking around. As expected, their spatial mage was nowhere to be seen. Where was that damn flirt when he was actually needed?

**"And in seventh place-"**

"Relax," Magna said "we did better than expected. There's no need to go racing around just yet, I'm sure we're-"

**"The Coral Peacocks! they earned a grand total of sixty-seven stars!"**

"Okay, yeah, we need to find Finral." Magna said, standing up "Luck, any idea where he is?"

"Nope, sorry", Luck said, lightning sparking off him slightly as he rubbed the back of his head "there's too many people to pick him out."

"Damn it."

**"In sixth place, with just two more stars, we have the Green Praying Mantises!"**

"FINRAL!" Vanessa yelled, keeping an eye out for Noelle and Asta as she ran. Thankfully, most of them had gathered in the same area, so they were all already together.

**"In fifth place, with sixty-seven stars-"**

"Noelle!" Vanessa cried, spotting a head of silver hair amongst the crowd, the siblings from the Underwater Temple were with her, but they couldn't take non-squad members backstage with them. Noelle would have to find them later.

"Vanessa?" Noelle asked, turning to face her "what's going on?"

**"The Crimson Lion Kings!"**

"We're doing much better than expected," Vanessa said "that's what. Where's your robe" and she _knows_ she told Noelle to bring her robe with her.

"In my bag-" Noelle said, pulling her robe out. "Vanessa-" Vanessa didn't wait for her to finish, they didn't have time for silly questions.

"Great. Put it on." she turned back to Luck and Magna "Who're we missing"

"Asta and Finral," Magna said. Of course. The two people aside from Yami most likely to be wanted on stage. Great.

**"And, in fourth place, earning a total of eighty-three stars, the Blue Rose Knights!"**

That meant that they were in the top three. Vanessa internally groaned, scanning the crowd for Finral and Asta. Normally, being in the top three was great, amazing even, it meant that the squad had done really well and was usually an honour reserved for the Golden Dawn, the Silver Eagles and the Crimson Lion Kings, with the Blue Rose Knights occasionally grabbing a spot. The Black Bulls did not make it into the top three. They came last. Dead last. With negative stars. And _because_ they weren't expecting to be in the top three and to actually have to appear on stage, they were scattered around the festival and their Vice-Captain was _still_ nowhere to be seen.

Thankfully, though, Asta was.

"Vanessa?" Asta asked as she grabbed his arm, pulling him back towards the group.

"We're in the top three," Magna said as they reached the others. Just Finral missing then. "How the hell did we manage that?" the Underwater Temple, the Witches Forest and the two magic stones, if Vanessa had to guess. There would have been other things too, but those were probably the main ones.

**"In third place, with ninety-five stars, the Silver Eagles!"**

"We beat Nozel-nii-sama?" Noelle asked quietly as Vanessa pulled a spare robe out of her bag, the idiot hadn't thought to bring his, and shoved it over his head. She could understand Noelle's surprise, _she_ was shocked that they were doing as well as they were, but they really didn't have time for it.

"There you are!" Vanessa had never been happier to hear that voice.

"Finral!" she cried, pulling their vice-captain in with her thread magic and ignored his spluttered protests. "About time!"

"Sorry," Finral said, pulling his own robe on and putting the hood up "I wasn't expecting us to do this well!" It was safe to say that _none_ of them were expecting to have done as well as they had.

**"And, in second place, with a staggering one hundred and one stars-"**

"We got over a hundred stars?" Magna asked, amazed, as Finral pulled out his grimoire, a portal coming to life in front of them.

"Shut up and move!" Vanessa said as the squad filtered through. they didn't have time to stand around and talk.

**"-a massive leap from their unprecedented total last year of minus fifty stars-"**

"We came second!" Luck cheered. Vanessa rolled her eyes as she shoved the chaotic due, leaving herself and Finral as the only ones not backstage.

**"-we have the Black Bulls!"**

As one, they tumbled out at the back of the backstage area.

"Everyone got their hoods up?" Finral asked, as Magna and Luck both grabbed a black robe out of Magna's bag, quickly pulling them on, and why they hadn't done that earlier, Vanessa had no idea.

**"I don't blame you all for being surprised,"**

"Yeah- hey, wait, Luck! That's my robe!" Magna said, pointing at the lightning mage. Oh for pities sake, none of them had time for Luck's strange flirting.

**"For the longest time, this squad has seemed like more of a myth and a joke than anything else, but they are very real."**

"I know." the Cheery Berserker said with a smile, and Vanessa had to wrap some of her threads around Magna to stop a fight from breaking out. They were getting enough stares from the other squads as it was.

**"This year, though, things are different."**

"We don't have time for this" Noelle said, grabbing Asta's wrist and pulling him towards the stage.

**"They've worked hard and accomplished unbelievable feats and have risen up through the rankings to claim second place."**

"She's right," Vanessa said, doing a quick headcount as they followed Noelle and Asta. Good, they had everyone.

 **"And then there's the newcomer who- oh. Their captain is still not on stage.** "

* * *

 **"Are any of the Black Bulls present tonight?"** Julius called. Yami sighed, well, there was a first time for everything. He'd known that his squad had earnt a lot of stars, but enough to take them to second place? He didn't think it had been quite that many.

"We're here," Yami said, stepping out of the shadows and onto the stage for the first time during a Star Festival. He could sense the Ki and mana of his squad practically scrambling around backstage. Idiots, the lot of them.

 **"Captain of the Black Bulls, Yami Sukehiro."** Julius said, nodding at him as he introduced him for the audience's benefit "nice of you to finally show yourself." There was a crash from backstage. Magna and Luck fighting over something again. Yami smirked as the rest of the captains started looking at each other in confusion. He might just agree to Julius' plan of letting them meet his squad just for their reactions to the chaos of the Black Bulls.

"Stop breaking stuff back there!" Yami called, smirking at the assorted apologies he got in response, the most entertaining by far being Asta proclaiming that it wasn't him.

"Right." Julius said, **"and now, presenting the rookie that's done the most for the Black Bulls this year, Asta of Hage!"** Asta stepped out onto the stage, stumbling slightly like he'd been pushed and his hood clearly pulled over his head by someone else.

"Er, hi," he said, waving to the crowd.

 **"And, finally, in first place, we have the Golden Dawn!"** Julius announced **"Their total number of stars was a staggering one hundred and twenty-five! That's a marked improvement on last year's total of ninety-six stars!"**

"Not bad, Goldiguts," Yami said, the Black Bulls had still earned more stars though. A hundred and thirty-two, if he was doing his maths right, to get from minus thirty-one to one hundred and one.

**"It would appear that the Golden Dawn has managed to pull off an impressive showing once again."**

* * *

**"And now, please allow me to introduce the highest earner amongst all the Magic Knights. Attended by the wind spirit, Sylph, our promising newcomer, Yuno of Hage!"**

Yuno smiled slightly as he walked out onto the stage. Asta was already there, waiting for him, and, despite the hood, Yuno could tell that his childhood friend was smiling.

"Good job," he said, coming to a stop "looks like you've earned your fair share of stars for your team, but don't get comfortable. _I'll_ become the next Wizard King." Asta as a good rival, and a good friend, but there was no way Yuno was letting him beat him to the title of Wizard King.

"I wouldn't talk so big." Asta said, "your squad might've got first place and set a new record and everything, but you'd better not let that go to your head either, because I'm gonna make sure I earn double the number of stars you get next time." Yuno would like to see Asta try and get double his stars. There was no way he was going to manage it. But Asta was fun to wind up

"Okay, then I'll get twice that," Yuno said, partially because he wouldn't let Asta beat him, and partially just to see his reaction

"That's how you wanna play?" Asta asked, "Then I'll do five times that many!" Yuno slowly, subtly, shook his head. Asta never could back down from a challenge.

"Do you even know how many times more stars than me you're looking at right now?" he asked, because he highly doubted that Asta did. Maths had never been his strong suit.

"Uh," Asta said, counting on his fingers "two times two times five would be, er, nine times?" he asked, and someone clearly still hadn't learnt the difference between addition and multiplication, it was a good thing Asta wasn't in charge of the Black Bulls' finances.

"Twenty times, genius."

 **"Yuno and Asta are the top earners amongst all of the novice knights. Which means they're two new stars to watch! They've produced outstanding results considering the fact they've only been Knights for half a year. Interestingly, these sixteen-year-olds are childhood friends from the same hometown!"** and did the Wizard King really need to tell everyone that fact? Surely introducing them as 'of Hage' should be enough?

He could hear the crowd muttered, trying to figure out their status. Most were of the opinion that they were nobility, even if nobody had heard of 'House Hage'.

"Actually, they're nought but commoners!" a voice called, and Yuno looked out over the crowd to see the guy that had spent most of the entrance exam using Asta to make himself look better. There were gasps from the crowd "it's true, haha! The scrawny guy from the Black Bulls doesn't even have any magic. Isn't that so sad?"Yuno could already hear the crowd turning against them.

"Sheesh." Bell said, "what's the matter with these people?" Yuno would be the first to admit that Bell was biased towards him, but he wasn't one to miss out on a chance to show off.

"Bell."

"What is it, Yuno?" the spirit asked.

"Let's show them." Bell laughed, understanding what he wanted without him having to say anything.

"It'd be my pleasure."

Yuno closed his eyes, summoning his magic, and enjoying the gasps from the crowd as the wind whipped around him.

"Yuno, wait," Asta said, "what are you about to do." Yuno opened his eyes, staring at his childhood friend

"Remember how we used to train, back when we were little kids?" he asked, and they'd spent hours training like that, ponce upon a time, Asta fighting an uphill battle against his wind in an attempt to get a hit in.

"Yeah, but-" Asta cut himself off and Yuno used his magic, condensing the wind swirling around him into a bow.

_Wind Magic: Swift White Bow!_

He loosed the arrow towards Asta, grinning when the anti-magic wielder pulled out his sword, cutting the wind in half. The crowd screamed

"Why do you always have to pull crazy stuff like this on me outta nowhere?" Asta demanded. "You're stronger now! What, are you tryin' to kill me during my fifteen seconds of fame, ya big jerk!" Yuno rolled his eyes. Asta was still as dramatic as ever, then

"If that had killed you, we'd know what your limit was." he said, "good thing you survived."

"Why- you little-" Asta spluttered, and Yuno wasn't sure who he was calling little. Asta was by far the shorter of the two of them. Above them, the Wizard King laughed.

 **"Now that you've witnessed their abilities, I invite anyone who doubts their worthiness to step forward. Yes, it's true that these two are commoners, but they've worked harder than any of their peers to make it where they are today. Proud citizens of the Clover Kingdom, let us commend these brave Knights!"** the Wizard King announced **"Regardless of rank or status, or nation's path to victory is to join together as one!"**

"Yuno," Asta said, as they stood side by side in front of all the Magic Knight Captains.

"Yeah"

"Look at us. We've really come this far."

"Yeah.

**"And, on that note, the Magic Knight's Star Ceremony has come to an end. I trust our squads will continue doing good work in the coming year."**

* * *

**"All right, now that we're finished with the Star Ceremony announcements, it is finally time! The ruler of Clover Kingdom, his majesty the King."**

"Woah, the King?" Vanessa heard Asta ask as he and his childhood friend went to stand to the side. Oh, yay. The king. Whoop-de-doo. Did she even have to call him her king? She wasn't technically from Clover, after all. Hmm, that would be something to grill Finral on later, he'd probably know.

"I will accept your cheers!" the king announced and Vanessa groaned. No. She wasn't cheering for that egomaniac. No way.

 **"Good evening and felicitations, my adoring followers. I am your beloved and benevolent monarch, the celebrated King Augustus Kira Clover the Thirteenth."** oh god, he'd only just started talking and Vanessa already wanted him to shut up.

"All hail the king, I guess," someone in the crowd said, and apparently that lacklustre response, which was really what he deserved, was enough to annoy the 'king'.

 **"You can do better than that!"** and Vanessa was glad that she was backstage and therefore hidden from prying eyes when she rolled hers. What a fool.

"Yikes, is that all it took for him to snap?" Asta asked,

"Unbelievable." his friend muttered.

 **"You insolent fools! I am the sovereign of this great kingdom and I demand admiration!"** did nobody ever tell him that admiration had to be earnt, not just given? **"Am I making myself clear?"** making himself sound like a spoilt brat more like **"Witness this awe-inspiring magic power handed down through the generations! My every single thought, my appearance. I am a most fitting and proper king in all respects!"** Vanessa wanted to know what he was on and where she could get some, because that sounded like one hell of a drug to make him believe the stupidity he was spouting. And she'd thought the Witch Queen was bad, at least she'd earnt her position and used her power to help her people. **"this makes me far superior to a mere Wizard King!"** yeah, no. Vanessa would rather thave the Wizard King, any day. And, from the looks of things, most of the crowd agreed with her.

"Man, I wish the WizardKing could jus be our king."

"This guy's a mess, why's he in charge?"

"It's not like we _need_ two separate kings," they muttered.

"I think the Wizard King should just be our real king from now on!" A small child declared, only to get shushed by the crowd.

 **"Citizens, I have an important piece of news to share with you. We have located the Midnight Sun's hideout!"** oh. That was good. Vanessa didn't particularly want to run into them again unannounced. Once had been bad enough, twice had been a nightmare. Running into the third member of the Third Eye unexpectedly would probably get them killed.

"Huh? We really found it?" Asta asked, and, to be fair, it was very sudden. Months with nothing and then, suddenly they found it? Obviously, the other squads had been looking but it all seemed very sudden to Vanessa.

 **"So far, in our battle against them, we've constantly been one step behind. But those days are over!"** Vanessa dragged Finral closer to the stage, making sure to stay on the opposite side of the opening to his brother. **"You'll be pleased to know that we're preparing to launch a full-scale counterattack of our own, and to do so we plan to gather the absolute cream of the crop from our Magic Knight squads."** was a public festival where the information could easily get back to their enemies really the best place to announce that **"Allowing us to assemble the most elite team imaginable!"** he stamped something, probably his foot **"And that unit shall be called the Royal Knights! In a week's time, I shall administer a rigorous exam to the members of all nine Magic Knight squads. Only those who pass the test will be invited to join my Royal Knights!"** wow, egotistical much? Vanessa already knew one thing, she wasn't going for it. Obviously, some of the squad would, they couldn't just have the Black Bulls be a no-show, but she wasn't going to be one of them. **"And then, we will obliterate the Eye of the Midnight Sun! Now listen carefully, my Magic Knights! I ask you to offer up your grimoires in service to your country!"** once again, not her country. The crowd seemed to like the idea though

"Royal Knights!"

"They can do it!"

"This is brilliant!"

"Why's the King picking people, though?" Asta asked, and Vanessa could always count on him to make things entertaining. Shouldn't the Wizard King handle all that stuff? I mean, he knows more about the Magic Knights than the King does, plus everybody likes him more." next to her, Final groaned, covering his face with his hand. Well, someone was clearly embarrassed by their rookie's lack of tact. "Think about it, the Wizard King does cool stuff all the time, and I've never heard of King Clover doing anything that great. What about you?"

"I dunno," Asta's friend said, in a tone that implied he would like Asta to stop talking before he put his foot in his mouth nay more than he already had.

"So he's got this super awesome magic power but he's never used it to make life better for the kingdom? Is that right?" Asta had a point, a ruler should do what they could for their kingdom, not expect their kingdom to do everything for them.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I dunno, maybe it#s 'cause I don't have powers, so tell me if I'm missin' the point here, but from where I'm standing it kinda seems like the king is totally pointless and dumb." Vanessa had to clap a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing at that statement. Finral banged his head against the wall.

"What is he doing?" Finral hissed.

"You could always go out and stop him, you know," Vanessa said, enjoying the look of indecision on the vice-captain's face.

"No, I can't that would look even worse than he already does." well, he had a point. It would look worse if Asta just vanished in front of everyone.

"Asta, quit talking and read the room." Asta's friend said, and at least one of them had some sense. "no matter how right you are, it's better to keep those comments to yourself."

"Huh, sounds like you agree with me."

"I like this kid" Captain Jack chuckled, "he tells it like it is." and Vanessa could see the problem. If the captains started agreeing that the Wizard King should be the only king, the country could very quickly break out into a civil war. And civil war was never a good thing.

 **"Off with their heads!"** The king yelled **"I want both of those traitors to be executed at one, right here at the festival!"** wow, that was harsh. And overreacting, Vanessa turned to tell Finral to portal Asta and his friend out of there, but the spatial mage was already busy

"Yami, no!" he said, too quietly to be heard by anyone off stage, opening a small portal over the handle of their captain's sword to stop him from grabbing it. The last thing they needed was Yami pulling a sword on the king. Out on the stage, Asta gasped.

"Thanks for getting us killed." his friend said, and Vanessa really needed to learn that kid's name.

* * *

 **"Kill them! Kill them! kill them!"** absently, Julius noticed a hooded figure lunging out from backstage to stop Yami from drawing his sword when the portal failed to do so. Finral Roulacase, if the green outfit was anything to go by, Yami's unofficial vice-captain. Hm, Julius really needed to talk to the captain of the Black Bulls about making that vice-captaincy official. Still, it showed that he had not one, but two problems. Not only did he need to stop the King before Asta and Yuno were executed, he needed to do it before Yami got past Finral and Vanessa, who had also come out from backstage, and stopped the monarch himself. **"I want them dead!"**

"I apologise for their impertinence, You majesty." He said, quickly. "however, for my sake, I must implore you to find it in your heart to pardon this transgression. After all, they may turn out to be the shield that protects you from an attack one of these days." Yami had apparently calmed down a bit as there was only Finral with him on stage at that point. "Besides, this is a trivial matter. Best not to throw your weight around. It'll cheapen your royal authority." Augustus took a step back. "Now, Royal Knights! I expect great things! I'm certain our Magic Knights will meet this challenge with profound strength and courage!" Now he just needed to get the captains to meet Yami's squad without any serious damage to anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this an awkward place to end it? Probably. Do I care? No.


End file.
